Hermetic
Pharmacology, Chemistry, and Therapeutics

THE art of healing was
originally one of the secret sciences of the priestcraft, and the mystery of
its source is obscured by the same veil which hides the genesis of religious
belief. All higher forms of knowledge were originally in the possession of the
sacerdotal castes. The temple was the cradle of civilization. The priests,
exercising their divine prerogative, made the laws and enforced them;
appointed the rulers and controlled than; ministered to the needs of the
living, and guided the destinies of the dead. All branches of learning were
monopolized by the priesthood, who admitted into their ranks only those
intellectually and morally qualified to perpetuate their arcanum. The
following quotation from Plato's Statesman is apropos of the subject: "
* * * in Egypt, the King himself is not allowed to reign, unless he have
priestly powers; and if he should be one of another class, and have obtained
the throne by violence, he must get enrolled in the priestcraft."

Candidates aspiring to
membership in the religious orders underwent severe tests to prove their
worthiness. These ordeals were called initiations. Those who passed
them successfully were welcomed as brothers by the priests and were
instructed in the secret teachings. Among the ancients, philosophy, science,
and religion were never considered as separate units: each was regarded as an
integral part of the whole. Philosophy was scientific and religious; science
was philosophic and religious I religion was philosophic and scientific.
Perfect wisdom was considered unattainable save as the result of harmonizing
all three of these expressions of mental and moral activity.

While modern physicians
accredit Hippocrates with being the father of medicine, the ancient
therapeutæ ascribed to the immortal Hermes the distinction of being the
founder of the art of healing. Clemens Alexandrinus, in describing the books
purported to be from the stylus of Hermes, divided the sacred writings into
six general classifications, one of which, the Pastophorus, was devoted
to the science of medicine. The Smaragdine, or Emerald Tablet found in
the valley of Ebron and generally accredited to Hermes, is in reality a
chemical formula of a high and secret order.

Hippocrates, the famous Greek
physician, during the fifth century before Christ, dissociated the healing art
from the other sciences of the temple and thereby established a precedent for
separateness. One of the consequences is the present widespread crass
scientific materialism. The ancients realized the interdependence of the
sciences. The moderns do not; and as a result, incomplete systems of learning
are attempting to maintain isolated individualism. The obstacles which
confront present-day scientific research are largely the result of prejudicial
limitations imposed by those who are unwilling to accept that which transcends
the concrete perceptions of the five primary human senses.

THE PARACELSIAN SYSTEM
OF MEDICAL PHILOSOPHY

During the Middle Ages the
long-ignored axioms and formulæ of Hermetic wisdom were assembled once more,
and chronicled, and systematic attempts were made to test their accuracy. To
Theophrastus of Hohenheim, who called himself Paracelsus (a name
meaning "greater than Celsus"), the world is indebted for much of the
knowledge it now possesses of the ancient systems of medicine. Paracelsus
devoted his entire life to the study and exposition of Hermetic philosophy.
Every notion and theory was grist to his mill, and, while members of the
medical fraternity belittle his memory now as they opposed his system then,
the occult world knows that he will yet be recognized as the greatest
physician of all times. While the heterodox and exotic temperament of
Paracelsus has been held against him by his enemies, and his wanderlust has
been called vagabondage, he was one of the few minds who intelligently sought
to reconcile the art of healing with the philosophic and religious systems of
paganism and Christianity.

In defending his right to seek
knowledge in all parts of the earth, and among all classes of society,
Paracelsus wrote: "Therefore I consider that it is for me a matter of praise,
not of blame, that I have hitherto and worthily pursued my wanderings. For
this will I bear witness respecting nature: he who will investigate her ways
must travel her books with his feet. That which is written is investigated
through its letters, but nature from land to land-as often a land so often a
leaf. Thus is the Codex of Nature, thus must its leaves be turned." (Paracelsus,
by John Maxson Stillman.)

Paracelsus was a great
observationalist, and those who knew him best have called him "The Second
Hermes" and "The Trismegistus of Switzerland." He traveled Europe from end to
end, and may have penetrated Eastern lands while running down superstitions
and ferreting out supposedly lost doctrines. From the gypsies he learned much
concerning the uses of simples, and apparently from the Arabians concerning
the making of talismans and the influences of the heavenly bodies. Paracelsus
felt that the healing of the sick was of far greater importance than the
maintaining of an orthodox medical standing, so he sacrificed what might
otherwise have been a dignified medical career and at the cost of lifelong
persecution bitterly attacked the therapeutic systems of his day.

Uppermost in his mind was the
hypothesis that everything in the universe is good for something--which
accounts for his cutting fungus from tombstones and collecting dew on glass
plates at midnight. He was a true explorer of Nature's arcanum. Many
authorities have held the opinion that he was the discoverer of mesmerism, and
that Mesmer evolved the art as the result of studying the writings of this
great Swiss physician.

The utter contempt which
Paracelsus felt for the narrow systems of medicine in vogue during his
lifetime, and his conviction of their inadequacy, are best expressed in his
own quaint way: "But the number of diseases that originate from some unknown
causes is far greater than those that come from mechanical causes, and for
such diseases our physicians know no cure because not knowing such causes they
cannot remove them. All they can prudently do is to observe the patient and
make their guesses about his condition; and the patient may rest satisfied if
the medicines administered to him do no serious harm, and do not prevent his
recovery. The best of our popular physicians are the ones that do least harm.
But, unfortunately, some poison their patients with mercury, others purge them
or bleed them to death. There are some who have learned so much that their
learning has driven out all their common sense, and a there are others who
care a great: deal more for their own profit than for the health of their
patients. A disease does not change its state to accommodate itself to the
knowledge of the physician, but the physician should understand the causes of
the disease. A physician should be a servant of Nature, and not her enemy; he
should be able to guide and direct her in her struggle for life and not throw,
by his unreasonable interference, fresh obstacles in the way of recovery."
(From the Paragranum, translated by Franz Hartmann.)

The belief that nearly all
diseases have their origin in the invisible nature of man (the Astrum) is a
fundamental precept of Hermetic medicine, for while Hermetists in no way
disregarded the physical body, they believed that man's material constitution
was an emanation from, or an objectification of, his invisible spiritual
principles. A brief, but it is believed fairly comprehensive, résumé of the
Hermetic principles of Paracelsus follows.

THE TITLE PAGE OF THE BOOK OF ALZE.

From Musæum Hermeticum
Reformatum et Amplificatum.

This title page is a further
example of Hermetic and alchemical symbolism. The seven-pointed star of the
sacred metals is arranged that one black point is downward, thus symbolizing
Saturn, the Destroyer. Beginning in the space immediately to the left of the
black point, reading clockwise discloses the cryptic word VITRIOL formed by
the capital letters of the seven Latin words in the outer circle.

There is one vital substance in
Nature upon which all things subsist. It is called archæus, or vital
life force, and is synonymous with the astral light or spiritual air of
the ancients. In regard to this substance, Eliphas Levi has written: "Light,
that creative agent, the vibrations of which are the movement and life of all
things; light, latent in the universal ether, radiating about absorbing
centres, which, being saturated thereby, project movement and life in their
turn, so forming creative currents; light, astralized in the stars, animalized
in animals, humanized in human beings; light, which vegetates all plants,
glistens in metals, produces all forms of Nature and equilibrates all by the
laws of universal sympathy--this is the light which exhibits the phenomena of
magnetism, divined by Paracelsus, which tinctures the blood, being released
from the air as it is inhaled and discharged by the hermetic bellows of the
lungs." (The History of Magic.)

This vital energy has its
origin in the spiritual body of the earth. Every created thing has two bodies,
one visible and substantial, the other invisible and transcendent. The latter
consists of an ethereal counterpart of the physical form; it constitutes the
vehicle of archæus, and may be called a vital body. This etheric
shadow sheath is not dissipated by death, but remains until the
physical form is entirely disintegrated. These "etheric doubles, "seen around
graveyards, have given rise to a belief in ghosts. Being much finer in its
substances than the earthly body, the etheric double is far more susceptible
to impulses and inharmonies. It is derangements of this astral light body that
cause much disease. Paracelsus taught that a person with a morbid mental
attitude could poison his own etheric nature, and this infection, diverting
the natural flow of vital life force, would later appear as a physical
ailment. All plants and minerals have an invisible nature composed of this "archæus,"
but each manifests it in a different way.

Concerning the astral-light
bodies of flowers, James Gaffarel, in 1650, wrote the following: "I answer,
that though they be chopt in pieces, brayed in a Mortar, and even burnt to
Ashes; yet do they neverthelesse retaine, (by a certaine Secret, and
wonderfull Power of Nature), both in the Juyce, and in the Ashes, the selfe
same Forme, and Figure, that they had before: and though it be not there
Visible, yet it may by Art be drawne forth, and made Visible to the Eye, by an
Artist. This perhaps will seem a Ridiculous story to those, who reade only the
Titles of Bookes: but, those that please, may see this truth confirmed, if
they but have recourse to the Workes of M. du Chesne, S. de la Violette, one
of the best Chymists that our Age hath produced; who affirmes, that himselfe
saw an Excellent Polich Physician of Cracovia, who kept, in Glasses, the Ashes
of almost all the Hearbs that are knowne: so that, when any one, out of
Curiosity, had a desire to see any of them, as (for example) a Rose, in one of
his Glasses, he tooke That where the Ashes of a Rose were preserved; and
holding it over a lighted Candle, so soone as it ever began to feele the Heat,
you should presently see the Ashes begin to Move; which afterwards rising up,
and dispersing themselves about the Glasse, you should immediately observe a
kind of little Dark Cloud; which dividing it selfe into many parts, it came at
length to represent a Rose; but so Faire, so Fresh, and so Perfect a one, that
you would have thought it to have been as Substancial, & as Odoriferous a
Rose, as growes on the Rose-tree." (Unheard-of Curiosities Concerning
Talismanical Sculpture of the Persians.)

Paracelsus, recognizing
derangements of the etheric double as the most important cause of disease,
sought to reharmonize its substances by bringing into contact with it other
bodies whose vital energy could supply elements needed, or were strong enough
to overcome the diseased conditions existing in the aura of the sufferer. Its
invisible cause having been thus removed, the ailment speedily vanished.

The vehicle for the archæus,
or vital life force, Paracelsus called the mumia. A good example of a
physical mumia is vaccine, which is the vehicle of a semi-astral virus.
Anything which serves as a medium for the transmission of the archæus, whether
it be organic or inorganic, truly physical or partly spiritualized, was termed
a mumia. The most universal form of the mumia was ether, which modern science
has accepted as a hypothetical substance serving as a medium between the realm
of vital energy and that of organic and inorganic substance.

The control of universal energy
is virtually impossible, save through one of its vehicles (the mumia). A good
example of this is food. Man does not secure nourishment from dead animal or
plant organisms, but when he incorporates their structures into his own body
he first gains control over the mumia, or etheric double, of the animal or
plant. Having obtained this control, the human organism then diverts the flow
of the archæus to its own uses. Paracelsus says: "That which constitutes life
is contained in the Mumia, and by imparting the Mumia we impart life." This is
the secret of the remedial properties of talismans and amulets, for the mumia
of the substances of which they are composed serves as a channel to connect
the person wearing them with certain manifestations of the universal vital
life force.

According to Paracelsus, in the
same way that plants purify the atmosphere by accepting into their
constitutions the carbon dioxid exhaled by animals and humans, so may plants
and animals accept disease elements transferred to them by human beings. These
lower forms of life, having organisms and needs different from man, are often
able to assimilate these substances without ill effect. At other times, the
plant or animal dies, sacrificed in order that the more intelligent, and
consequently more useful, creature may survive. Paracelsus discovered that in
either case the patient was gradually relieved of his malady. When the lower
life had either completely assimilated the foreign mumia from the patient, or
had itself died and disintegrated as the result of its inability to do so,
complete recovery resulted. Many years of investigation were necessary to
determine which herb or animal most readily accepted the mumia of each of
various diseases.

Paracelsus discovered that in
many cases plants revealed by their shape the particular organs of the human
body which they served most effectively. The medical system of Paracelsus was
based on the theory that by removing the diseased etheric mumia from the
organism of the patient and causing it to be accepted into the nature of some
distant and disinterested thing of comparatively little value, it was possible
to divert from the patient the flow of the archæus which had been continually
revitalizing and nourishing the malady. Its vehicle of expression being
transplanted, the archæus necessarily accompanied its mumia, and the patient
recovered.

THE HERMETIC THEORY
CONCERNING THE CAUSATIONS OF DISEASE

According to the Hermetic
philosophers, there were seven primary causes of disease. The first was
evil spirits. These were regarded as creatures born of degenerate actions,
subsisting on the vital energies of those to whom they attached themselves.
The second cause was a derangement of the spiritual nature and the material
nature: these two, failing to coordinate, produced

JOHANNIS BAPTISTAE VON HELMONT.

From von Helmont's Ausgang
der Artznen-Kunst.

At the beginning of the seventeenth
century von Helmont, the Belgian alchemist (to whom incidentally, the world is
indebted for the common term gas, as distinguished from other kinds of
air), while experimenting with the root of A---, touched it to the tip of his
tongue, without swallowing any of the substance. He himself describes the
result in the following manner:

"Immediately my head seemed tied tightly
with a string, and soon after there happened to me a singular circumstance
such as I had never before experienced. I observed with astonishment that I no
longer felt and thought with the head, but with the region of the stomach, as
if consciousness had now taken up its seat in the stomach. Terrified by this
unusual phenomenon, I asked myself and inquired into myself carefully; but I
only became the more convinced that my power of perception was became greater
and more comprehensive. This intellectual clearness was associated with great
pleasure. I did not sleep, nor did I dream; I was perfectly sober; and my
health was perfect. I had occasionally had ecstasies, but these had nothing in
common with this condition of the stomach, in which it thought and felt, and
almost excluded all cooperation of the head. In the meantime my friends were
troubled with the fear that I might go mad. But my faith to God, and my
submission to His will, soon dissipated this fear. This state continued for
two hours, after which I had same dizziness. I afterwards frequently tasted of
the A---, but I never again could reproduce these sensations." (Van Helmont,
Demens idea. Reprinted by P. Davidson in The Mistletoe and Its
Philosophy.)

Von Helmont is only one of many who have
accidentally hit upon the secrets of the early priestcrafts, but none in this
age give evidence of an adequate comprehension of the ancient Hermetic
secrets. From the description von Helmont gives, it is probable that the herb
mentioned by him paralyzed temporarily the cerebrospinal nervous system, the
result being that the consciousness was forced to function through the
sympathetic nervous system and its brain--the solar plexus.

mental and physical
subnormality. The third was an unhealthy or abnormal mental attitude.
Melancholia, morbid emotions, excess of feeling, such as passions, lusts,
greeds, and hates, affected the mumia, from which they reacted into the
physical body, where they resulted in ulcers, tumors, cancers, fevers, and
tuberculosis. The ancients viewed the disease germ as a unit of mumia which
had been impregnated with the emanations from evil influences which it had
contacted. In other words, germs were minute creatures born out of man's evil
thoughts and actions.

The fourth cause of disease was
what the Orientals called Karma, that is, the Law of Compensation,
which demanded that the individual pay in full for the indiscretions and
delinquencies of the past. A physician had to be very careful how he
interfered with the workings of this law, lest he thwart the plan of Eternal
justice. The fifth cause was the motion and aspects of the heavenly bodies.
The stars did not compel the sickness but rather impelled it. The Hermetists
taught that a strong and wise man ruled his stars, but that a negative, weak
person was ruled by them. These five causes of disease are all superphysical
in nature. They must be estimated by inductive and deductive reasoning and a
careful consideration of the life and temperament of the patient.

The sixth cause of disease was
a misuse of faculty, organ, or function, such as overstraining a member
or overtaxing the nerves. The seventh cause was the presence in the system
of foreign substances, impurities, or obstructions. Under this heading
must be considered diet, air, sunlight, and the presence of foreign bodies.
This list does not include accidental injuries; such do not belong under the
heading of disease. Frequently they are methods by which the Law of Karma
expresses itself.

According to the Hermetists,
disease could be prevented or successfully combated in seven ways. First, by
spells and invocations, in which the physician ordered the evil spirit causing
the disease to depart from the patient. This procedure was probably based on
the Biblical account of the man possessed of devils whom Jesus healed by
commanding the devils to leave the man and enter into a herd of swine.
Sometimes the evil spirits entered a patient at the bidding of someone
desiring to injure him. In these cases the physician commanded the spirits to
return to the one who sent them. It is recorded that in some instances the
evil spirits departed through the mouth in the form of clouds of smoke;
sometimes from the nostrils as flames. It is even averred that the spirits
might depart in the form of birds and insects.

The second method of healing
was by vibration. The inharmonies of the bodies were neutralized by chanting
spells and intoning the sacred names or by playing upon musical instruments
and singing. Sometimes articles of various colors were exposed to the sight of
the sick, for the ancients recognized, at least in part, the principle of
color therapeutics, now in the process of rediscovery.

The third method was with the
aid of talismans, charms, and amulets. The ancients believed that the planets
controlled the functions of the human body and that by making charms out of
different metals they could combat the malignant influences of the various
stars. Thus, a person who is anæmic lacks iron. Iron was believed to be under
the control of Mars. Therefore, in order to bring the influence of Mars to the
sufferer, around his neck was hung a talisman made of iron and bearing upon it
certain secret instructions reputed to have the power of invoking the spirit
of Mars. If there was too much iron in the system, the patient was subjected
to the influence of a talisman composed of the metal corresponding to some
planet having an antipathy to Mars. This influence would then offset the Mars
energy and thus aid in restoring normality.

The fourth method was by the
aid of herbs and simples. While they used metal talismans, the majority of the
ancient physicians did not approve of mineral medicine in any form for
internal use. Herbs were their favorite remedies. Like the metals, each herb
was assigned to one of the planets. Having diagnosed by the stars the sickness
and its cause, the doctors then administered the herbal antidote.

The fifth method of healing
disease was by prayer. All ancient peoples believed in the compassionate
intercession of the Deity for the alleviation of human suffering. Paracelsus
said that faith would cure all disease. Few persons, however, possess a
sufficient degree of faith.

The sixth method--which was
prevention rather than cure--was regulation of the diet and daily habits of
life. The individual, by avoiding the things which caused illness, remained
well. The ancients believed that health was the normal state of man; disease
was the result of man's disregard of the dictates of Nature.

The seventh method was
"practical medicine," consisting chiefly of bleeding, purging, and similar
lines of treatment. These procedures, while useful in moderation, were
dangerous in excess. Many a useful citizen has died twenty-five or fifty years
before his time as the result of drastic purging or of having all the blood
drained out of his body.

Paracelsus used all seven
methods of treatment, and even his worst enemies admitted that he accomplished
results almost miraculous in character. Near his old estate in Hohenheim, the
dew falls very heavily at certain seasons of the year, and Paracelsus
discovered that by gathering the dew under certain configurations of the
planets he obtained a water possessing marvelous medicinal virtue, for it had
absorbed the properties of the heavenly bodies.

HERMETIC HERBALISM AND
PHARMACOLOGY

The herbs of the fields were
sacred to the early pagans, who believed that the gods had made plants for the
cure of human ills. When properly prepared and applied, each root and shrub
could be used for the alleviation of suffering, or for the development of
spiritual, mental, moral, or physical powers. In The Mistletoe and Its
Philosophy, P. Davidson pays the following beautiful tribute to the
plants: "Books have been written on the language of flowers and herbs, the
poet from the earliest ages has held the sweetest and most loving converse
with them, kings are even glad to obtain their essences at second hand to
perfume themselves; but to the true physician--Nature's High-Priest--they
speak in a far higher and more exalted strain. There is not a plant or mineral
which has disclosed the last of its properties to the scientists. How can they
feel confident that for every one of the discovered properties there may not
be many powers concealed in the inner nature of the plant? Well have flowers
been called the 'Stars of Earth,' and why should they not be beautiful? Have
they not from the time of their birth smiled in the splendor of the sun by
day, and slumbered under the brightness of the stars by night? Have they not
come from another and more spiritual world to our earth, seeing that God made
'every plant of the field BEFORE it was in the earth, and every herb of the
field BEFORE IT GREW'?"

Many primitive peoples used
herbal remedies, with many remarkable cures. The Chinese, Egyptians, and
American Indians cured with herbs diseases for which modern science knows no
remedy. Doctor Nicholas Culpeper, whose useful life ended in 1654, was
probably the most famous of herbalists. Finding that the medical systems of
his day were unsatisfactory in the extreme, Culpeper turned his attention to
the plants of the fields, and discovered a medium of healing which gained for
him national renown.

In Doctor Culpeper's
correlation of astrology and herbalism, each plant was under the jurisdiction
of one of the planets or luminaries. He believed that disease was also
controlled by celestial configurations. He summed up his system of treatment
as follows: "You may oppose diseases by Herbs of the planet opposite to the
planet that causes them: as diseases of Jupiter by Herbs of Mercury, and the
contrary; diseases of the Luminaries by the Herbs of Saturn, and the contrary;
diseases of Mars by Herbs of Venus and the contrary. * * * There is a way to
cure diseases sometimes by Sympathy, and so every planet cures his own
disease; as the Sun and Moon by their Herbs cure the Eyes, Saturn the Spleen,
Jupiter the Liver, Mars the Gall and diseases of choler, and Venus diseases in
the Instruments of Generation." (The Complete Herbal.)

Mediæval European herbalists
rediscovered only in part the ancient Hermetic secrets of Egypt and Greece.
These earlier nations evolved the fundamentals of nearly all modern arcs and
sciences.

NICHOLAS CULPEPER.

From Culpeper's Semeiotica
Uranica.

This famous physician,
herbalist, and astrologer spent the greater part of his useful life ranging
the hills and forests of England and cataloguing literally hundreds of
medicinal herbs. Condemning the unnatural methods of contemporaneous medicos,
Culpeper wrote: "This not being pleasing, and less profitable tome, I
consulted with my two brothers, DR. REASON and DR. EXPERIENCE, and took a
voyage to visit my mother NATURE, by whose advice, together with the help of
Dr. DILIGENCE, I at last obtained my desire; and, being warned by MR. HONESTY,
a stranger in our days, to publish it to the world, I have done it." (From the
Introduction to the 1835 Edition of The Complete Herbal.) Doctor
Johnson said of Culpeper that he merited the gratitude of posterity.

[paragraph
continues] At that time the methods used in healing were
among the secrets imparted to initiates of the Mysteries. Unctions, collyria,
philters, and potions were concocted to the accompaniment of strange rites.
The effectiveness of these medicines is a matter of historical record.
Incenses and perfumes were also much used.

Barrett in his Magus
describes the theory on which they worked, as follows: "For, because our
spirit is the pure, subtil, lucid, airy and unctuous vapour of the blood,
nothing, therefore, is better adapted for collyriums than the like vapours
which are more suitable to our spirit in substance; for then, by reason of
their likeness, they do more stir up, attract and transform the spirit."

Poisons were thoroughly
studied, and in some communities extracts of deadly herbs were administered to
persons sentenced to death--as in the case of Socrates. The infamous Borgias
of Italy developed the art of poisoning to its highest degree. Unnumbered
brilliant men and women were quietly and efficiently disposed of by the almost
superhuman knowledge of chemistry which for many centuries was preserved in
the Borgia family.

Egyptian priests discovered
herb extracts by means of which temporary clairvoyance could be induced, and
they made use of these during the initiatory rituals of their Mysteries. The
drugs were sometimes mixed with the food given to candidates, and at other
times were presented in the form of sacred potions, the nature of which was
explained. Shortly after the drugs were administered to him, the neophyte was
attacked by a spell of dizziness. He found himself floating through space, and
while his physical body was absolutely insensible (being guarded by priests
that no ill should befall it) the candidate passed through a number of weird
experiences, which he was able to relate after regaining consciousness. In the
light of present-day knowledge, it is difficult to appreciate an art so highly
developed that by means of draughts, perfumes, and incenses any mental
attitude desired could be induced almost instantaneously, yet such an art
actually existed among the priestcraft of the early pagan world.

Concerning this subject, H. P.
Blavatsky, the foremost occultist of the nineteenth century, has written:
'Plants also have like mystical properties in a most wonderful degree, and the
secrets of the herbs of dreams and enchantments are only lost to European
science, and useless to say, too, are unknown to it, except in a few marked
instances, such as opium and hashish. Yet, the psychical effects of even these
few upon the human system are regarded as evidences of a temporary mental
disorder. The women of Thessaly and Epirus, the female hierophants of the
rites of Sabazius, did not carry their secrets away with the downfall of their
sanctuaries. They are still preserved, and those who are aware of the nature
of Soma, know the properties of other plants as well." (Isis Unveiled.)

Herbal compounds were used to
cause temporary clairvoyance in connection with the oracles, especially the
one at Delphi. Words spoken while in these imposed trances were regarded as
prophetic. Modem mediums, while under control as the result of partly
self-imposed catalepsy, give messages somewhat similar to those of the ancient
prophets, but in the majority of cases their results are far less accurate,
for the soothsayers of today lack the knowledge of Nature's hidden forces.

The Mysteries taught that
during the higher degrees of initiation the gods themselves took part in the
instruction of candidates or at least were present, which was in itself a
benediction. As the deities dwelt in the invisible worlds and came only in
their spiritual bodies, it was impossible for the neophyte to cognize them
without the assistance of drugs which stimulated the clairvoyant center of his
consciousness (probably the pineal gland). Many initiates in the ancient
Mysteries stated emphatically that they had conversed with the immortals, and
had beheld the gods.

When the standards of the
pagans became corrupted, a division took place in the Mysteries. The band of
truly enlightened ones separated themselves from the rest and, preserving the
most important of their secrets, vanished without leaving a trace. The rest
slowly drifted, like rudderless ships, on the rocks of degeneracy and
disintegration. Some of the less important of the secret formulæ fell into the
hands of the profane, who perverted them--as in the case of the Bacchanalia,
during which drugs were mixed with wine and became the real cause of the
orgies.

In certain parts of the earth
it was maintained that there were natural wells, springs, or fountains, in
which the water (because of the minerals through which it coursed) was
tinctured with sacred properties. Temples were often built near these spots,
and in some cases natural caves which chanced to be in the vicinity were
sanctified to some deity.

"The aspirants to initiation,
and those who came to request prophetic dreams of the Gods, were prepared by a
fast, more or less prolonged, after which they partook of meals expressly
prepared; and also of mysterious drinks, such as the water of Lethe, and the
water of Mnemosyne in the grotto of Trophonius; or of the Ciceion in the
mysteries of the Eleusinia. Different drugs were easily mixed up with the
meats or introduced into the drinks, according to the state of mind or body
into which it was necessary to throw the recipient, and the nature of the
visions he was desirous of procuring.'' (Salverte's The Occult Sciences.)
The same author states that certain sects of early Christianity were accused
of using drugs for the same general purposes as the pagans.

The sect of the Assassins, or
the Yezidees as they are more generally known, demonstrated a rather
interesting aspect of the drug problem. In the eleventh century this order, by
capturing the fortress of Mount Alamont, established itself at Irak. Hassan
Sabbah, the founder of the order, known as the "Old Man of the Mountain, " is
suspected of having controlled his followers by the use of narcotics. Hassan
made his followers believe that they were in Paradise, where they would be
forever if they implicitly obeyed him while they were alive. De Quincey, in
his Confessions of an Opium Eater, describes the peculiar psychological
effects produced by this product of the poppy, and the use of a similar drug
may have given rise to the idea of Paradise which filled the minds of the
Yezidees.

The philosophers of all ages
have taught that the visible universe was but a fractional part of the whole,
and that by analogy the physical body of man is in reality the least important
part of his composite constitution. Most of the medical systems of today
almost entirely ignore the superphysical man. They pay but scant attention to
causes, and concentrate their efforts on ameliorating effects. Paracelsus,
noting the same proclivity on the part of physicians during his day, aptly
remarked: "There is a great difference between the power that removes the
invisible causes of disease, and which is Magic, and that which causes merely
external effects [to] disappear, and which is Physic, Sorcery, and Quackery."
(Translated by Franz Hartmann.)

Disease is unnatural, and is
evidence that there is a maladjustment within or between organs or tissues.
Permanent health cannot be regained until harmony is restored. The outstanding
virtue of Hermetic medicine was its recognition of spiritual and
psychophysical derangements as being largely responsible for the condition
which is called physical disease. Suggestive therapy was used with marked
success by the priest-physicians of the ancient world. Among the-American
Indians, the Shamans--or "Medicine Men"--dispelled sickness with the
aid of mysterious dances, invocations, and charms. The fact that in spite of
their ignorance of modern methods of medical treatment these sorcerers
effected innumerable cures, is well worthy of consideration.

The magic rituals used by the
Egyptian priests for the curing of disease were based upon a highly developed
comprehension of the complex workings of the human mind and its reactions upon
the physical constitution. The Egyptian and Brahmin worlds undoubtedly
understood the fundamental principle of vibrotherapeutics. By means of chants
and mantras, which emphasized certain vowel and consonant sounds, they set up
vibratory reactions which dispelled congestions and assisted Nature in
reconstructing broken members and depleted organisms. They also applied their
knowledge of the laws governing vibration to the spiritual constitution of
man; by their intonings, they stimulated latent centers of consciousness and
thereby vastly increased the sensitiveness of the subjective nature.

In the Book of Coming Forth
by Day, many of the Egyptian secrets have been preserved to this
generation. While this ancient scroll has been well translated, only a few
understand the secret: significance of its magical passages. Oriental races
have a keen realization of the dynamics of sound. They know that every spoken
word has tremendous power and that by certain arrangements of words they can
create vortices of force in the invisible universe about them and thereby
profoundly influence physical substance. The Sacred Word by which the
world was established, the Lost Word which Masonry is still seeking,
and the threefold Divine Name symbolized by A. U. M.--the creative tone
of the Hindus--all are indicative of the veneration accorded the principle of
sound.

The so-called "new discoveries"
of modern science are often only rediscoveries of secrets well known to the
priests and philosophers of ancient pagandom. Man's inhumanity to man has
resulted in the loss of records and formula: which, had they been preserved,
would have solved many of the greatest problems of this civilization. With
sword and firebrand, races obliterate the records of their predecessors, and
then inevitably meet with an untimely fate for need of the very wisdom they
have destroyed.

CHEMICAL SYLLABLES.

From De Monte-Snyders'
Metamorphosis Planetarum.

De Monte-Snyders declares that each of
the above characters forms one syllables of a word having seven syllables, the
word itself representing the materia prima, or first substance of the
universe. As all substance is composed of seven powers combined according to
certain cosmic laws, a great mystery is concealed within the sevenfold
constitution of man, and the universe. Of the above seven characters, De
Monte-Snyder writes:

Whoever wants to know the true name and
character of the materia prima shall know that out of the combination
of the above figures syllables are produced, and out of these the verbum
significativum."